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Publisher's Summary

If you don't know Simon Scarrow, you don't know Rome!Praetorian is the gripping eleventh novel in Simon Scarrow's best-selling Eagles of the Empire series. Essential reading for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Conn Iggulden.
AD 51. Legionaries Cato and Macro have forged a bond that has survived war, rebellion and torture. Yet nothing has prepared them for a daunting mission on the deadliest battlefield of all: the bloody streets of Rome.
Traitors are threatening to plunge the Empire into bloody chaos and no one can be trusted. The Emperor has ordered Cato and Macro to go on a deadly mission, working undercover to root out the traitors before Rome tears itself apart.
As the true scale of the corruption dawns, they realise they are facing terrifying odds. Two men against many, in a desperate race to save not only the Empire, but each other....

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful

5 out of 5 stars
By
Judith A. Weller
on
05-08-12

The best Macro and Cato to date

I have read all of the books and listened to unabridged audio of the series.

This is without doubt one of the most thrilling Macro and Cato stories in the series. It is the only volume set completely in Rome - the others are set in various countries where the two are sent and are more concerned with Roman Legion in which they serve.

In this book we are dealing with a conspriacy to murder the Emperior Claudius in 51AD. Macro and Cato go undercover as members of Praetorian Guards to ferret out the conspiracy against the Emperor. As usual they are working for Narcissus, the Emperor's Secretary. Some of the great historical names of the period are involved in the story such as Agrippina, Tigellinus, the future Emperor Nero etc.

As always the story moves along at a fast pace and it is hard to stop listening to it, as it is so excitement.

Simon Scarrow brings the period to life as he does in all the books of the series. It is unfortunate that Audible only has some of the earlier books in abridged format.

This is a great series and a great you won't be sorry you listened to it.

Customer Reviews

Good Story awful performance.

Would you try another book written by Simon Scarrow or narrated by Gareth Armstrong?

Yes. the series is very good, with a good amount of intrigue and action.

What other book might you compare Praetorian to, and why?

Very similiar to the more political Sharpe Books

What didn’t you like about Gareth Armstrong’s performance?

Half of the characters sounds like old and feeble men despite contrary descriptions in the story itself. The voice action is more like a reading of a childrens story rather than an adult book. Difficult to identify some of the comments between the main characters. The actor obviously had a lot of saliva in his mouth during various parts of the performance as you can hear it in the recording.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Praetorian?

A Dip in a Fine Series

This is one of my favourite series but for the first time it's hard to give it a high rating. The story is sound enough and it's a fascinating and viable thought that these two heroes of the legions might be in just as much danger surrounded by the political machinations of Rome as on any battlefield.

There are problems though. The narration is a long way below the standard of previous books and this has clearly been recognised as subsequent books see the return of Maestro Keeble. Armstrong's characters had much less personality with the lead duo seeming to suffer the most.

The plot itself is okay and there are some great Macro and Cato moments of dialogue. However, there is less action and the identities of the bad guys are fairly obvious nay given away early on. I also thought the Praetorian Guard were stereotyped a little harshly given the role that most historians agree they played.

So, I still enjoyed it but as an overall experience it felt a little lacking compared to other books in the series so far.